FitMi PD: an affordable home therapy device for individuals with Parkinson's disease

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a progressive, neurodegenerative disorder that affects approximately 1 million people in the United States. Even with optimal pharmacological treatment, motor function in individuals with PD deteriorates progressively, leading to impaired mobility, difficulties with transfers, posture, reaching, hand dexterity, and balance. Exercise therapy can slow down the degenerative process of PD, improve motor function, gait, strength, balance, and quality-of-life. However, the current amount of exercise therapy that individuals receive during in-clinic therapy sessions is inadequate. To maximize the therapeutic benefit of exercise therapy, the overall dosage needs to be much higher than what is typically provided during one-on-one in-clinic sessions. Devices that facilitate home exercise can thus make it easier for individuals with PD to increase the amount of exercise therapy they receive. However, to our knowledge, there is no commercially available exercise technology that is specifically tailored to address the problems faced by individuals with PD. Flint Rehab has extensive experience designing safe and motivating exercise technology for neurological disorders, having previously developed a wireless movement sensing system called FitMi for individuals following a stroke. We believe that with the appropriate, clinically-informed design improvements, FitMi could similarly facilitate a significant increase in home exercise in individuals with PD. Thus, for this Phase I SBIR, we propose to build on the successful FitMi design and create a new engaging home exercise program (“FitMi PD”) specifically for individuals with PD. To maximize its benefit and target multiple areas of dysfunction, FitMi PD will incorporate a variety of proven exercise modalities. The proposed FitMi PD system will also include an additional hip- worn sensor, allowing us to expand the library of exercises FitMi can detect to include larger whole-body movements. Our specific aims for Phase I are to: Aim 1) Perform structured interviews with clinical experts and individuals with PD to optimize the design of FitMi PD (n=10). Aim 2) Develop FitMi PD exercise software based on design requirements from Aim 1 andamp; iterative expert and user feedback and build prototype hip-worn sensor. Aim 3) Perform a feasibility study of FitMi PD with 12 individuals with PD to determine if it can safely promote unsupervised at-home exercise therapy. Our hypothesis is that FitMi PD will be a feasible, motivating system for delivering effective exercise therapy at home, eventually leading to significantly greater improvements in motor functions and activities of daily living in individuals with PD. We will evaluate the efficacy of FitMi PD in Phase II. At the end of this project, we will have completed initial development and feasibility testing of a novel home exercise device for individuals with PD. We will refine and clinically validate FitMi PD in Phase II, leading to eventual commercialization of a motivating, effective, and affordable at-home therapy option for individuals with PD.This research is relevant to public health because it will help support the development and commercialization of a novel home exercise system for individuals with Parkinson’s Disease. FitMi PD will help facilitate increased exercise therapy by guiding users through a variety of beneficial exercise modalities in a fun and easy-to-use package. This will provide a pathway to slowing down the degenerative process and possibly improving motor function, cognition, and quality of life for the 1 million individuals in the United States diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.